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Kumasi, Sept. 24, GNA - Mr Ludwig Hlodze, National Youth Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has urged the youth to refuse to be part of any evil agenda to undermine the peace as the nation prepares for general elections in December.

He said they needed to act more responsibly and accept to be more tolerant of their political opponents. He said this when addressing an inter-party youth committee (IPYC) political forum held at the conference hall of the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU) in Kumasi. The event, which brought together over 250 youth organizers and their deputies from the ruling NDC, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the People’s National Convention (PNC), were drawn from the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo Regions. The programme was jointly organized by the IPYC and the German NGO, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES). “Sustaining peace before, during and after election 2012: the role of the Inter Party Youth Committee”, was the theme. It is an initiative to promote dialogue among the political parties, remove acrimony and bring down tension before, during and after the polls to decide who leads the country for the next four years. Mr Hlodze, who chairs the committee appealed to his colleagues to be circumspect in their utterances and do away with any act likely to ignite violence. He said there was no basis to be at each others’ throat just because people wanted political power. Mr Abu Ramadan, National Youth Organizer of the PNC, underlined the need for all the actors - the media, police, the Electoral Commission (EC) and leadership of the political parties to act together to make the polls fair, transparent and credible. Mr Emmanuel Attafuah-Danso, Deputy National Youth Organizer of the NPP, called on all stakeholders to practice what they preached. They should not “just talk peace but must let their actions reflect sincere commitment to the peace,” he said. Mr Rauf Abdul Kadri, acting National Youth Organizer of the CPP, said all needed to work assiduously to protect the integrity of the polls. Professor Robert Kwame Nkum, Provost of College of Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), who presided, asked the youth to be patriotic and nationalistic, saying, it should not be lost on them that they were Ghana’s future. Ms Hajara Mohammed Rufai, Programme Coordinator of FES, said their partnership with the IPYC was to help reduce tension and ensure violence free elections.